It is important to maintain a blood sugar level within a normal range for the purpose of preventing complications of diabetes such as diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic neuropathy, and the like. Some diabetic patients require insulin administration in order to maintain their blood sugar levels within a desirable range. These diabetic patients usually administer insulin to themselves by the use of a syringe while monitoring their blood sugar levels. By means of the insulin administration with a syringe, the concentration of insulin in a bloodstream increases at the time of the administration of insulin. However, by means of the administration of insulin with the syringe, it is difficult to cause insulin of low concentration to exist in the bloodstream over a long period of time, just as the behavior or action of a pancreas in a living body.
In recent years, there has been used an insulin dispensing device which controls the injection volume of insulin in an automatic manner. The insulin dispensing device is one in which the dispensing volume and timing of insulin are programmed. By means of this insulin dispensing device, it is possible to inject insulin in a slow or gradual manner over a long period of time under nearer physiological conditions, and for this reason, such an insulin dispensing device is effective for maintaining the blood sugar level in a desired range. Insulin dispensing devices have been made smaller in size and lighter in weight, and it has also been carried out that a diabetic patient wears such a miniaturized insulin dispensing device on his or her body.
On the other hand, in general, monitoring of the blood sugar level is performed by measuring the blood sugar level in a periodic manner with the use of a small-sized blood sugar measuring device adopting an in vitro measuring method.
A typical small-sized blood sugar measuring device uses a specimen holding a glucose oxidation-reduction enzyme. The measurement of a blood sugar level by the use of a small-sized blood sugar measuring device is carried out by inserting a specimen into an insertion opening of the small-sized blood sugar measuring device, and by supplying a blood sample, which was obtained by lancing the skin of a fingertip or the like with the use of a portable lancing device, onto the specimen. As a result of this, in the small-sized blood sugar measuring device, the blood sugar level can be calculated based on an amount of charge transfer or a coloration level resulting from enzyme reactions inside the specimen.
At present, there are cases where, by using a small-sized blood sugar measuring device and an insulin dispensing device together, the dispensing volume of insulin into blood is adjusted in accordance with the monitored result of the blood sugar level by the small-sized blood sugar measuring device (see, for example, a Patent Document 1 and a Patent Document 2).
An insulin dispensing device equipped with a blood sugar measuring function is disclosed in the Patent Document 1. Such an insulin dispensing device becomes large in size, so in cases where the insulin dispensing device is used while being worn on the body of a user, the burden of the user is heavy. In addition, under the environment in which the insulin dispensing device becomes in contact with water, such as at the time of bathing, etc., it is not only necessary to make the device water-proof, but also there exists a large possibility that water will enter the interior of the device because of the presence of the insertion opening for inserting a specimen.
An apparatus including an insulin dispensing device and a small-sized blood sugar measuring device and an adapter for combining them is disclosed in the Patent Document 2. In this apparatus, by combining the small-sized blood sugar measuring device with the insulin dispensing device, the result of the measurement of the blood sugar level made by the small-sized blood sugar measuring device is transmitted to the insulin dispensing device. General-purpose short-distance wireless communication means such as an infrared ray communication means is adopted for data transmission of the measurement result. In such an apparatus, in a situation, such as at the time of bathing, etc., where the insulin dispensing device is in contact with water, or in a situation where the small-sized blood sugar measuring device is not used, the small-sized blood sugar measuring device can be separated from the insulin dispensing device, so the user's burden is reduced. On the other hand, because the adapter is required for the data transmission, there is a high risk of being unable to carry out data transmission from the small-sized blood sugar measuring device to the insulin dispensing device due to a loss of the adapter. In addition, the use of the adapter increases the number of parts as required, and hence becomes a cause of increasing the cost of manufacture or complicating the attaching and detaching operation of the small-sized blood sugar measuring device with respect to the insulin dispensing device.
In cases where the blood sugar level is controlled by the use of the small-sized blood sugar measuring device and the insulin dispensing device, measurement data and data corresponding to the history with respect to the dispensing or delivery of insulin are outputted from these devices to an external information processing device. General-purpose short-distance wireless communication means such as an infrared ray communication means is adopted in many cases for communication to such an information processing device, too.
However, in the case of adopting short-distance wireless communication means, it is necessary to arrange the communication ports of the insulin dispensing device and the small-sized blood sugar measuring device faces (opposes) each other. Therefore, with the configuration in which the small-sized blood sugar measuring device is combined with the insulin dispensing device, at the time when data is transmitted from the insulin dispensing device to the external information processing device, the small-sized blood sugar measuring device may become an obstacle depending on the position of the communication port in the insulin dispensing device, so the data may not be able to be transmitted. In particular, in the insulin dispensing device, in the case of making use of its communication port, which is usually used for communication with the small-sized blood sugar measuring device, for the purpose of data transmission to the external information processing device, the small-sized blood sugar measuring device becomes an obstacle for communication. In order to eliminate such inconveniences, it is only necessary to separate the small-sized blood sugar measuring device from the insulin dispensing device, but in that case, not only the operation of separating the small-sized blood sugar measuring device is troublesome, but also the possibility of losing the adapter and the blood sugar measuring device becomes high.    Patent Document 1: Japanese translation of PCT international application No. 11-507250    Patent Document 2: Japanese translation of PCT international application No. 2007-503288